PFA Taps Contractor, Again, for Luis Hospital Rebuild

By Kit MacAvoy
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Disaster Recovery Office Director Adrienne Williams-Octalien updates the V.I. Public Finance Authority Board during a special meeting on Friday. (Screenshot from Zoom meeting)

The V.I. Public Finance Authority Board approved a preliminary contract Friday with Suffolk Construction to demolish and rebuild the Juan F. Luis Hospital on St. Croix. The Schneider Regional Medical Center rebuild project will go out to bid again.

The JFL award comes nearly six months after the board initially tapped Clark Construction and MCN Build for both hospital projects. The first public indication that negotiations with the Clark-MCN joint venture had stalled came during Gov. Albert Bryan Jr.’s State of the Territory Address, during which he said the government was “in the final stages of contracting” for the long-awaited rebuild. Asked about negotiations in January, a PFA spokesperson told the Source that the authority was “still in the procurement process for this particular contract” and “not at liberty to discuss the status of any negotiations.”

Adrienne Williams-Octalien, director of the V.I. Disaster Recovery Office, told board members Friday that ODR was “blindsided” when the contractor pulled out in December. One sticking point, she said, was Clark’s insistence on an arbitration agreement that would have potential disputes handled by a venue outside of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Board member Dorothy Isaacs said it was “astounding” that the contractor would walk away from hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts and asked if there was a reason the Virgin Islands government wouldn’t consider the arbitration clause. Bryan began to say that the government wasn’t necessarily against the practice before Kye Walker, the PFA’s general counsel, suggested that the conversation was more appropriate for executive session.

Clark-MCN and Suffolk-CBNA were the only respondents to the territory’s most recent solicitation for the two hospitals. Williams-Octalien said Friday that Suffolk bid $3,425,017 for the first 12 months of pre-construction and $138,873,370 for the next phase of early work.

In August, the PFA Board selected Suffolk-CBNA to design and rebuild the Alexander Henderson, Alfredo Andrews and Claude O. Markoe elementary schools, the Pearl B. Larsen PreK-8 School and an administrative center on St. Croix. The joint venture is also building an administrative center on St. Thomas and handling the design and rebuilds of the Lockhart K-8 School, the Ivanna Eudora Kean High School and the Yvonne Milliner Bowsky, Jane E. Tuitt and Emanuel Benjamin Oliver elementary schools.

“Our conversations always circle around, how much can any one contractor have the capacity to do?” Bryan told the Source after Friday’s meeting. “But I think Suffolk is going to be okay, because once you get those projects going and you get a crew down here, you can really kind of cull the people that are weak and then have a steady crew that continues to help in the construction, with all of these projects. But it’s major coordination, as we’re seeing.”